A Mother Knows
by BenXGwen Lightning Warrior
Summary: Gwen has a nightmare and calls Ben for support. Natalie overhears, truths are revealed, and it.. Well, you have to read to find out. I own nothing. (one-shot)


A Mother Knows

_Gwen ran. She could hear Kevin's macabre laughter as he chased her through the mint. Rows of freshly minted coin raced by the redhead in silver streaks as her heart pounded in her chest. Thinking quickly, the young sorceress grabbed a rack of coins and pushed it into the nearest one. As it fell, the racks of currency fell like dominoes and left a sea of silver behind the girl._

"_You cannot escape me, Gwen!"_

_Kevin's roaring laughter echoed against her eardrums, but Gwen kept running. She only stopped when the floor broke apart into pieces of the Null Void. Gwen screamed. Gwen did the only thing she could and started jumping from rock to rock as fear drove her forward._

"_Where's Ben?" Gwen mumbled as she continued running._

_Gwen had to get out. She had to find Ben. The girl had to tell him…_

_She slid to a screeching halt as she saw Kevin with Ben unconscious and clutched tight in his Petrosapien arm. Kevin sneered at Gwen. Then, his mouth dislocated and widened like Ripjaws. As Kevin lowered his mouth over Ben to swallow him whole, Gwen stood frozen in fear. The gleam in Kevin's eyes horrified her. Then, he swallowed. As Kevin turned to Gwen, smacking his lips to savor the last remnants of his victory, he grinned and sucked in Ben's flailing right leg as if it was a strand of spaghetti.._

"_You know? It is only a matter of time before I consume him."_

_Gwen glared at the monster with tears in her eyes as Kevin morphed and distorted into Ben 10k. Fear left her, replaced by anger. She marched up and glared hard at Ben's possible future double. She jumped up and kicked him in the gut. Her eyes burned with determination as she landed in a battle stance._

"_You are determined to save him, but will he save you?"_

_Gwen shivered as the voice faded and braced herself. Then, she noticed the scene change yet again. Vines scattered themselves in a disorganized web across a metal floor. Gwen tensed. No. This cant be! She looked back to see Ben and Tetrax appear in the doorway of the Flaurana Hive. Ben and Tetrax blasted away the monsters, but one escaped the onslaught and tried to get the jump on Ben._

"_Ben look out!"_

_Before Gwen could process, she felt the monster grab her. Gwen tried to find leverage on the floor to pull herself out of the creature's grip, but it was all for naught. The creature raised her into the air and dragged her down into the chute with no effort._

"_BEN!"_

Gwen shot awake in a cold sweat. For a moment, Gwen didn't know where she was. Then, the lightning from the heavy storm outside briefly illuminated the room followed by the retort of thunder a second later. Gwen looked around for her phone and flipped it open.

"3:30…" Gwen read silently as she sighed and punched "2" on the speed dial.

After three rings, she heard Ben pick up. "Dweeb…hello?"

"Ben, can you just stay on for a few minutes?"

Ben raised an eyebrow at his cousin's request. Then, his face hardened. "What happened, Gwen?"

"I was running from Kevin in the mint. He wanted me for some reason, not you." She whispered.

In classic Ben fashion, the boy tried to calm her down by making a joke. "Why would he want you? I mean you're cute, but Kevin's a psycho. Maybe in an alternate dimension where you had your head screwed on backwards…"

Gwen blinked. _Ben thinks I'm cute?_

Then, her brain caught up with the rest of Ben's statement. "No version of me would be that stupid, Doofus!"

Ben laughed. "I don't know, infinite possibilities and all that weird science stuff."

_Wait. Ben knows about the Multiple World's Theory?!_ Gwen thought. _Anyway…_

"Then, I was suddenly in the Null Void…" Gwen stopped, her voice clipped by emotion.

Ben glared at the phone because the hitch in her voice told him she was seconds away from crying. "Gwen, let it out. I'm here." Ben told her as he looked at the Omnitrix and debated going XLR8 to be there for her in person.

A few minutes later, Gwen sniffed and said, "Ok, I can keep going now."

Ben felt his heart clinch. Next time he saw Kevin, it was not going to be pretty. "What happened next?"

"He…he ATE you!"

That one threw Ben, but he patiently waited for her to continue.

"He said it was only a matter of time before he became you. Then, he turned into Ben 10K!"

Ben felt as if Gwen was on the verge of another cry and waited until he knew she was…stable. Then, with as much steel as he could muster, Ben said, "As long as I have you…" Ben quickly made an addendum to keep his statement from sounding weird. "…and Grandpa, I can never become that jerk. I promise."

Gwen smiled at the resolve in Ben's voice, it gave her an odd sense of comfort to know that he was willing to admit, if only between them, she was so important to him.

After that admission, an easy silence descended over the cousins. For a moment, they just enjoyed each other. An understanding passed between them. Anything said during this call would be held in highest possible confidence by the cousins. Sometimes, silence says more than any words could ever say, and Gwen found enough strength in that unspoken agreement between her and Ben to tell him:

"Xenon…"

Ben stiffened and paled at the name. Gwen's scream as the Wildwine dragged her down most likely would never leave his mind so long as he lived.

"Gwen, I…"

The addressed cousin cut him off. "Ben, we lived through it." She told him. "We both did." Gwen gave him a watery smile though she knew he couldn't see her. "We still have each other."

"G-Gwen…"

It wasn't often Ben lost control of his emotions, and when he did, the goofy Doofus was usually overly happy. To hear his voice crack with waiting tears at Gwen's name drove a stake through the redhead. "Ben, I'm here." Gwen closed her eyes and focused. She knew when her projection gripped Ben's hand because he gasped in surprise. "I'll always be here."

Unknown to the cousins, Gwen's mother Natalie woke up because of the raging storm as well. As the woman sat up, she heard her daughter talking and slowly tiptoed to the girl's room to be able to hear better as the mother's mind asked, _who could Gwen be talking to in the middle of the night?_

When Natalie could hear clearly, she stopped.

"Xenon…"

The word from Gwen's lips carried a heaviness and fear with it that sounded strange to the older woman. _It could be a new game, but why would Ben call Gwen at three in the morning to chat about a video game?_

"Ben, we lived through it; we both did."

The statement set a boulder in the mother's stomach. _Lived through it? BOTH of them?!_ Natalie's mind repeated in shock.

Natalie tiptoed nearer to Gwen's room and was stunned as a bright blue light began to shine from the room. Shielding her eyes from the highly unexpected and strange light, Natalie walked on and peaked into her daughter's room.

Gwen glowed! The redhead sat in what appeared to be a meditative position and had a visible blue aura around her!

"I'm here." The girl whispered with a calming smile. "I'll always be here."

As the light faded, Natalie couldn't take anymore. She walked over to Gwen and grabbed her. "What was that?!"

Gwen shivered in her mother's arms. "Code: Muggle." The girl said calmly into the receiver.

Natalie glared at her daughter. "What was that?! How and why did you glow?! Who were you talking to? What were you talking about?"

"Mom, Ben and I can explain everything. Just-" Gwen couldn't help smiling as the doorbell rang once.

Ignoring her mother's protests, Gwen raced downstairs and opened the door, smiled at the drenched brunette boy on the walk. Ben was clearly drenched from the downpour, but you wouldn't know his discomfort by the smile he wore.

"Hey, Gwen. Where's Aunt Natalie?"

"I'm right here, Benjamin." The woman in question answered curtly.

The boy nodded and calmly walked over to the living room, having gone through this scenario and others with Gwen since school started back and Vilgax ripped apart Ben's house.

"Told you it was only a matter of time, Dweeb." He said with a smirk her way.

Gwen rolled her eyes at Ben's remark and sighed. "I can glow because what you saw was an Astral Projection Spell."

Natalie shook her head. "You're telling me you're a real witch?!" Natalie started laughing but stopped when her nephew's and daughter's faces didn't move an inch.

"Yep, Gwen's a witch with a capital…mmm!" He muttered as Gwen angrily covered his mouth.

"Ben, that's my mother!"

Natalie raised an eyebrow at the way Gwen phrased her reprimand. _Why didn't she add "…and your aunt!"?_

"Anyway, I am a mage, not a witch." Gwen clarified as she shot Ben a look.

"How?"

"Well…" Ben smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "First night of camping with Grandpa Max…"

After explaining most of what happened over the summer to Natalie while dialing back the more deadly exploits, Ben and Gwen waited for judgement. None came however. Instead, Natalie only seemed to get harder. This time, her fury directed solely at Ben.

"If Grandpa Max kept both of you safe during your summer stint as heroes, what happened on Xenon?"

The shift in the atmosphere at the mention of that dreadful trip turned almost tangible. Gwen froze to keep from sobbing although she was not doing a very good job at it. Ben glared hard at Natalie with such anger and fire that she actually felt a moment of fear as she looked into her nephew's eyes.

"Aunt Natalie, I almost caused the end of the Universe and thought Gwen DIED, so I could live to fix MY MISTAKE!"

Natalie cracked a smile. "If you think…"

"Damn it, Aunt Nat!" Ben growled as the fire intensified in the young boy's eyes.

Natalie visibility jerked at the curse directed at her.

"After all the crap Gwen and I have seen, do you honestly think I would make up a story about losing the best part of myself and possibly dooming the UNIVERSE to get out of the way of your anger?"

Ben fought really hard not to punch the woman in the face in that moment, but Gwen's calming touch extinguished all but the hottest burning embers of Ben's anger that remained in his eyes.

"Mom, I almost died in the belly of an extraterrestrial Venus Flytrap." She said as Ben squeezed her hand to give her the strength to look her mom in the eyes. "There's no way we would make this up."

After a moment, Natalie calmed down and finally saw the children. No, children wasn't quite the right word. No one could go into a war-zone a child and come out a child. Natalie noticed how the pair acted and remembered how Gwen and Ben acted only moments before. It reminded her of herself and Frank.

"What are you to each other?" Natalie asked with a raised eyebrow.

Gwen and Ben looked at each other. An unspoken conversation happened in the few seconds of contact.

"We complete each other." Gwen stated.

"We support each other." Ben affirmed.

"We are one." Ben and Gwen said in unison.

Natalie shivered at the unwavering tone in the pair's voices. She looked at Ben. Then, she looked at Gwen. Somehow, Natalie could see them at the altar and building a family together. Natalie couldn't help the tears as her mind conjured scenes of the pair through various stages of life. Natalie was sure they would have their problems, but the bond would remain.

"Thank you for telling me." Natalie said as she walked over to the children and hugged them. "Whatever happens, I'll be there for both of you."

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